A woman of true fire
by Arielen
Summary: Firebenders have killed his wife and threatened his tribe for sixty years, so Hakoda hates everyone of their blood. But then he meets a woman who is very different from her kind – or maybe not?
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** A woman of true fire

**Character(s):** Hakoda, Ursa

**Pairing(s):** Hakoda/Ursa (?)

**Rating:** K+

**Word Count:**

**Warnings:** /

**A/N: **_F__irebenders have killed his wife and threatened his tribe for sixty years, so Hakoda hates everyone of their blood. But then he meets a woman who is very different from her kind – or maybe not?_

The scence has spooked around in my head some days now after wathching the episodes mentioned above in TV once more.

Please comment, I would be happy about it. And be nice, because I am no native speaker of the English language

Crossposted from arielen to avatar_fans and avatarfic.

**Acknowledgments: **_Avatar:__The Last Airbender_ was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko; copyright for this property is held by Viacom International, Inc.. I own nothing.

**Dedication**: To **acocado love**, who gave me the inspiration to write more stories in a foreign language.

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Hakoda, Chief of of the Southern Water Tribe was on the run.

The raid on the camp of a firenation coast patrol nearly turned into a trap for his people. They had been to confident in their abilities after the first victories over Firenation ships and now they paid the price. Everything went desastrously wrong. The soldiers and firebenders were more cautious than the others before, and not overwhelmed by the sudden attack of the warriors. The men hold their stand and fought furiously back.

And worst of all - some of their archers seemed even more skilled than all others. They knew the weaknesses of any armour, Hakoda and his men wore. The Chief experienced that painfully on his own.

At last nothing was left but to retreat or better - to flee. In this process, Hakoda was separated from his men. The last sound he had heard from the tribeswarriors, was an angry cry from Bato, who tried to reach him.

But there was no time for thinking about the last failures and his greatest fears.

_The only thing that matters now, is to stay alive and better not be caught_, Hakoda thought and stopped. With pounding heart and short breath he listened to the wind, while his left hand wandered to the shaft of an arrow in his side, who went through the straps of his leather armour.

He groaned, while he broke the wood in two. That had to be enough for now. He didn't dare to pull out the arrowhead, because the wound was still bleeding. With his fingertips he could feel the sticky wetness of the red liquid. It stained his unterclothes and the leather. And he could sense the weakening effects of the constant loss of blood.

He took a deep breath. _There is no time for rest. I have to go on._

In some distance he heard the harsh voices of firenation soldiers. There must be three, maybe four men, maybe more, because not all could light their way with flames dancing on their hands. His sighed. So, they were still chasing him like bloodhounds on a trail. Maybe he had left to many visible signs, so that they cpuld follow him without any difficulty. That was bad – very bad.

I can not outrun them for long anymore, but I will rather die, then fall in the hand of the firenation scum! Maybe I should stand and die with…

Hakoda felt the first signs of weakness in his body and stumbled at his next step. But then he gathered all the strengh and drove away the desperation in his mind. For a moment he thought, to stay, stand and fight. But then the images of his two children appeared in his mind and reminded him of his responsibilities.

_No, it is not the time to throw away my life in a such a stupid way. I must carry on for Sokka and Katara. I have to, because I will see them again, before I die. And I should never forget, who I am. My first aim is to stay alive to find a way back to my tribesmen._

Although dawn was approaching and the sun would rise in less than an hour, he had the hope to escape the men, who were hunting him. It was still dark enough, that they could not see every trail. And maybe he could find a hide – a hole - he might be save for a while.

Hakoda looked around, while he was walking faster and faster.

The beach was a hilly mix of sand, gras and rocks. Maybe he could find something, a hole, big enough to disappear in. And he had to find it fast – very fast.

The Watertribe warrior gasped, while he walked on. Every step took him more towards exhaustion.

_Damned! No, that hasn't to happen not yet, not now._

At last dizziness caught him in a sudden attack. While he struggled to clear his mind and senses again, he lost ground under his feed and fell into a deep void full of darkness…

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The bitter and aromatic scent of fresh herbs was the first perception, while Hakoda regained consciousness. He was irritated, because that was very uncommon for a prison, especially in a Firenation ship. It had to be the foul stench of metal, of rust - and not fresh scent of plants, herbs and more he could not identify yet…

Then he discovered, that he was not resting on dirty straw or rags, but the matress of a bed. He opened his eyes, but closed them fastly again, when dizziness caught him once more.

_I am hallucinating in the middle of a fever dream. Nothing is real. Am I near death now?_

He groaned desperatly.

"Don't panic, Water Tribe warrior. You will be safe here. I do you no harm." A Woman spoke to him. Her voice was soft and warm, but also strong and fearless.

Hakoda decided to stay cautious.

Everything could have happened, when he had passed out at the beach. The soldiers could have taken him to the camp of the firenation. Because they considered him as no thread in his weakened state, they didn'd put restraints on him.

There was only one way to find out, where he had been taken. Hakoda gathered all his strengh, before he could drift in sleep again. "Where I am?" He asked with a hoarse voice, trying to open his eyes once more.

"You are in my hut, near the village of Han-shu in the Earth kingdom. Quian and Li, two teenagers from the village, seeking for eggs, found you crumbled in the sand at the bottom of a cliff. You were lucky enough not to fall on the harder ground or the Stones, so that there were no broken legs, arms or worse," The woman informed him with a low voice.

"They also mentioned the trails of Firenation Warriors nearby, but I think they retreated, wenn they saw them. This part of the coast is well watched by now, and the Earth Kingdom soldiers have had taught them to respect the borders before."

"Well, I hope that will not change," Hakoda answered. His dizziness was fading, so that he could open his eyes and look around.

"Only future will tell. And we are not the ones, who are allowed to look into it. For now it is safe, and you can recover in peace."

When he turned his head to the hearth's fire, he could see her figure, illuminated by the soft colours of the flames. She bowed over a kettle, her face turned away from him. She wore her hair plaited but with a topknot. He raised a brow. In the first moment it looked as if in were Firenation, but then he recognized, that it was more the Earth-Kingdom style.

"They told me, that they only discovered you between the rocks, because they directly went between them to find hidden bird's nests. So it seems, that your were really born unter a lucky star or that fate decided to give you one more chance", she chuckled. "And you did not die, although you have lost a good amount of blood. You're remarkably strong."

"But without your help, I would be dead by now." Hakoda felt tight bandages around his waist, when he slowly moved in a better position. "I must thank you for your help. You and the others kept me alive."

"It's okay. I only return the favour the old woman, who lived here before, granted me three years ago, when I was a fugitive like you", she answered. "She helped me to recover. And after she died, I stayed here as her successor as healer."

"Then you're not from here?" Hakoda stopped in his speech, when she turned around.

His eyes widened.

She was one of the most beautyful women he had seen in his life. Although she was of his age, she had a clear, young looking face with balanced features. She was tall and slender, with a figure in nearly perfect shape. And in her delicate hands she held a cup.

But that was not the reason, why he gasped in shock first, and then snarled in anger and hate.

Her skin was fair, her hair not dark-brown but of a deep black and her eyes were amber, no golden – a look he has learned to fear from his earliest childhood.

The woman, who had helped him, was of purest Firenation blood.


	2. Chapter 2

Thank you so much for your nice and helpful comments and sorry for the delay. I will try to answer them, as fast as I can, but I am still ill. Here now is the second part of the story. I hope you can enjoy it while reading and looking forward to your comments.

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Hakodas eyes narrowed, while his body cramped. With a quick look he discovered, that his weapons and armour lay on the other side of the hut, to far away to grab them with one fast move.

To his dislike, the bandages immobilized him, too. Even an unexperienced young firebender could take him out with a blow now. And he was sure, that she was more than that.

He fought back the panic in his mind and tried to focus.

_Damned! The firewitch has trapped me in here! Maybe the bountyhunters or soldiers are just on their way. But now she cannot longer lure me with her kindness and sweet words. I have to fight her, but how…_

The Watertribe warrior bit on his lip, but then he looked for other chances, to overwhelm the woman, who hold im captive. The only weapon he could possibly use was the bowl of water near the bedside. Maybe, if he could distract her and then…

No, chance, he realized, she is far to mindful to slip any of her attention.

The woman stood in the middle of the room, still watching him quietly. Then, as if she had read his thoughts, she said: "Listen to me. You're in no danger here. Maybe I am born in the Firenation," She looked openly at him. "But I am no longer a pawn of the Firelord, serving his will. I am an outcast – hunted like you."

"Do you really think, that I trust you anymore? You are from the Firenation and that is enough for me. We are enemies!" Hakoda replied furious. "In my whole life, I have learned _one_ thing: Never trust anyone who was born or had lived in the Firenation to long. My tribe and I have experienced in bitter lessons, that all of your people we met are insidious, arrogant and cruel!"

The women nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I know. I heard the same often enough, when I came in this country after my banishment. Many threw waste and stones at me, hunted and insulted me, some event tried to kill me.

But like the Earth Kingdom citizens, who gave me food, when I was starving, and took me in, when I became ill, there are men and women in the Firenation too, who don't think, that they are superior to the rest of the world."

Hakoda laughed bitterly. "Oh, please, don't try it to tell me, that there are still good men and women in the Firenation? Where were this certain kind of people, when your navy attacked my tribe in the last sixty years, when they deported and killed many of us – even children - leaving destroyed families behind? Tell me, who of them dared to speak against the Firelord and his minions, when they wiped out the Air Nomads and invaded the Earth kingdom in the last century?"

He spied out. With his hand he slowly grabbed the water bowl, but took his hand back, when the woman's eyes followed his action. She really wasn't easy to lure.

"You're right. No one did enough to stop them," she answered and looked straight in his eyes. She showed no pity or sympathy, but something darkened her eyes. Could that be shame?

Then she spoke again: "Only a handful of people in the last three generations spoke out their opinion against Firelord Sozin, Firelord Azulon or … Firelord Ozai and their generals. All of them – or their families - paid a very high price, even the youngest, if they to not flee." She took a deep breath. "Yes it is right, that all citizens of the Fire Nation have to obey their ruler. Defiance is counted as treason and punished severely. But it doesn't hinder some of us, to see other people as equal and even try to make friends, if there is a chance."

She finally offered him the cup.

"I know of men, who spared women and children and helped them to escape, although they knew that they would be stripped from command, imprisoned or executed for their deeds. There are merchants, commoners and noblemen who share friendship with men and women in the Earth Kingdom, although somedays they could be accused of treason, if the wrong person finds out."

She stopped. "But you're also right. The were quiet on other occasions and let to many things things happen, especially against your people, the Southern Water Tribe. I have heard some stories, and the cruelty against women and children did not make me happy. But I stayed quiet too." Then she tried to give him the cup once again. "Here please, drink that soup. It will give you more strengh to fight the fever. You will recover sooner."

"No thank you, I am not hungry!" Hakoda refused to take the cup., although his stomach betrayed him with a loud growl, when he got the scent of the soup in his nose.

The woman smiled. "A part of your body tells me otherwise."

Then she took a little sip of the liquid, which seems to be hot still. "It is not poisoned, but it might be a little to spicy for your taste", she said with a sarcastic grin. "Do you really think, I would treat your wounds and soothen your pain, to kill you so easily, if I am as insidious as you think?" She grinned bitterly. "Please, it woud have been much more comfortable and less effort for me, to let you die of your wounds and the loss of blood."

Hakoda rose a brow. "Yes, that is a point, I cannot ignore," He returned the sarcasm. "It would be a waste of time and resources to heal first and kill with the next move. Even a member of the Fire Nation would not act so foolish."

"Oh, I have known some great braggarts in the Firenation, who acted like this in their arrogance and false pride. Some of them have learned a bitter lesson of humiliation by now, but my greatest hope is, that the biggest of them all will face the price of his actions too," she added cynically. "I will see forward to this day."

Hakoda raised a brow. No defiance and insults but an assent?

Against his will, he felt respect for this nameless woman from the Fire Nation. Yes in a way she was proud and arrogant like all the others, he met before, but she also spoke her mind openly and seemed to accept him.

Maybe it was time to put aside some prejudices. _But not to much._

Careful he took the cup from her warm hands and drank a sip. Then he waited a moment.

The liquid run down his throat and reached his stomach. Then the heat exploded in the middle of his body. It was, as if he was set on fire, but his life spirits woke up. It was as if new strengh flooded through his veins.

"Yes it is spicy," He gasped. "But it is very good."

She smiled, as she watched him drinking till the cup was empty.

Hakoda reached out. "Can I have some more?

"One cup is enough for now, because of the wound near your stomach," she replied calmly. "And do not wonder, if you will feel tired again in a few minutes."

"Why?" The cup fell from Hakodas hands, when he froze in shock. _I am such an idiot! I went into her trap with open eyes, only because I have listend to her sweet little speech of good people in the firenation. There are all of the same dark spirit!_

"You have poisoned me, witch!" he spit out and tried to catch her with his next move. Then he gasped in pain.

Meanwhile she evaded his grasp easily and sent him back on the bed with a short but sudden thrust on his ribs.

"No I am not!" She answered with a sharp voice. "Now calm down you angry and distrustful idiot." Golden sparks danced in her eyes. "You are foolish like a little boy, oh great warrior. Come to your senses. I am not the one who spoils her own work!"

"Empty words, witch. I will listen do your lies no more!" After that Hakoda cold do nothing more but breathe, while the pain of the wound kept him down. Again he felt week and dizzyness caught his mind. He coughed, while he fought to stay awake and conscious. But again his body was stronger and forced him into unconsciousness.

"See, what you have done. You have re-opened your wound," She said grimly. And - "Maybe I should let you bleed to death," were the last words he head from her.


	3. Chapter 3

_A young girl was sitting at the edges of a pool and looked at a bubble of water swirling in the air, quietly rotating in a small circle._

_He smiled, when he recognized his daughter Katara. Although she was so young, she almost resembled Kya. In a few years she would become a real beauty like her mother. And maybe more of that. She was a real treasure of the tribe – the last remaining waterbender. He would do anything to protect her, like his wife – her mother did._

_Pain filled his heard and mind .Then the pictures before his eyes began to mix and mingle … a blinding flash of fire struck the girl down ... for am moment she jumped up, then she fell back in the snow, cringing and writhing … with burning clothes. In the next moment, a men in well known uniform of the Firenation walked between his sight and the crying girl._

"_Today we didn't come to make prisoners", the brute said coldly and lifted his hands. The wailing stopped abruptly, when he fired bolts at the girl at his feet again and laughed triumphantly._

_Hakoda froze in shock. He slipped deeper into the past… and it was not the lifeless body of Katara he held in his arms. It was Kya - his wife was dead, killed by the lethal blow of a firebender._

_First he felt nothing but despair and emptiness, but then …_

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"No!" Hakoda cried out, fighting against the vision of his greatest loss and fear. Anger and fear, the hunger for revenge and retribution filled his mind one again. In this moment he was ready to kill anyone near to him.

Fiercly looking around, he needed a moment to come to his senses. Then he realized, that he wasn't at the South Pole any more, but still in a hut of Earth Kingdom style. Light illuminated the inside through the opened windows and door. A fresh but warm breeze tingled his sweatened skin.

I am still alive, he noticed with pounding heart. The firewitch didn't let me die again as she had proposed. But why? What are her reasons? Should I really consider that she tries to help me although I am the sworn enemy of her people?

He took a deep breath to calm himself down. It was a quiet and peacefull morning and so should he. Because the dizzyness was gone and he felt much stronger now, it was time to consider, what he could and shoud do now.

For a moment he listened the birds singing nearby and cries of the sea-gulls from the coast. One thing was missing in the all to nice picture.

Were was the healer?

So Hakoda looked around again and saw the woman now. She was sitting in a pool of light on the cushions on the other side of a window, staring at him, as if he had startled her.

Maybe she had meditated, to clear her mind and thoughts or prayed to the spirits. That wasn't uncommon for men and women of her profession. Then he noticed, that a scroll had slipped through her fingers. Had she been reading when he woke up?

No, that couldn't be.

He could see parts of a fine and delicate painting of a face. And so Hakoda took a closer look. Could that be the painting of a young man or a boy? Maybe her love, a close relative … or her son? There are many things I don't know about this woman. She is old enough to have a family of her own. And if it is right, what she told me – what greater punishment could a mother endure than to be separated from her family.

He studied her face. For a moment their eyes met. In the golden dephts he recognized something like loss, desperation and anger – similar to his feelings, when he woke up.

Something has happened, when I was unconscious, and it is connected with that scroll. But it is no letter. I haven't seen any writing on I, it ist only a picture..

But he dared not to ask her for may reasons. And one of them forbid feelings like pity. It is not of my concern, if she had lost someone or misses him or her. I should never forget, to which people she belongs. I should not feel any sympathy for her kind.

Then she looked down to the scroll, closed her eyes for a moment. Carefully she wrapped it up and stored it in the sleeve of her robe. When she looked up again, her face was without emotions.

"So you're finally awake," she said calmly. "You will recover soon, because the fever is gone and the healing has begun. In some days yo will be fine enough to leave and find your people."

She paused for a moment. "I think, I have good news for you. Quian, the daughter of the Tavern's owner visited me this morning and told me about some boats who were not from the Firenation or Earth Kingdom. A fisherman had seen them sailing across the coast, as if they are searching for someone. But they had no contact yet."

"Indeed," Hakoda answered in surprise. "That are really good news. I wish, I could send them a message."

The healer showed a faint smile. "I think Qian will handle that. She is quite the source for information in Han-shu, because she likes to talk to everyone who comes in the village. I think, if one of the fishermen, has the opportunity to speak with your men, he will tell them, that you are alive and recovering. I have given Qian this information, to spread it to the right people."

Hakoda was astonished again. Maybe I have misjudged her intentions all the time. Is it really possible, that someone of the Firenation is of true sense and honor? It is hard to admit, but I think, I should give her a chance to win my trust.

So he made the hardest decision of his life and took a deep breath. "I owe you an apology. You have saved my life, but instead of thanking you, I insulted and mistrusted you all the time, only because you were born and raised in the Firenation. Maybe I have done you wrong," He said.

"It was your right. My people have harmed your tribe in more than one way", she answered. "And so it wasn't my right to demand you to trust me. Too much has happened between the Firenation and the Southern Water Tribe, to accept each other at once. But we could make a start, to learn from each other."

"You're right." Hakoda answered slowly. But that would not keep him from staying cautious. Still it was a beginning, to learn more about her – and thinking strategically - some weaknesses of the enemy. It would be interesting to gain some information from someone of the Firenation. So he emphasized his answer with a nod.

"First of all, you should not call me firewitch. A am no firebender. The people here know me as Urda." She looked at him with a mysterious smile. So that could not be her real name.

You're a Bitch. You're telling me not the truth without lying, he thought. So it is up to me how fair I like to play the game…

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Sorry for the long delay, but much has happened in the last years. But here is another part of the story. I hope you can still enjoy it.


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